Just reported on MSNBC-Healthcare stocks are up due to the anticipated win of Scott Brown

[jenmito]

and possible death of healthcare. Now why would that be if the bill is such a giveaway to the healthcare industry?!

[Robb]

1. Excellent question. nt

[jenmito]

3. Thanks. Maybe that's why the post was unrec'ed with no answers. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

2. sad and sickening....once more cashing in on tragedy.

[Kdillard]

4. Yeah they are betting on Brown winning. Hopefully they will be wrong.

[jenmito]

7. Yup. But since we see that the insurance stocks are UP on that assumption, shouldn't

posters here who keep saying the bill is a giveaway to insurance companies be singing a different tune on this news?

[Thrill]

5. Blame Massachusetts voters. They fell for another Romney bullshitter

[flakey_foont]

6. saw elsewhere

that this Cramer dork is predicting big stocks jump if Brown wins as well...

[Armstead]

8. For them the status quo is better -- But that still doesn't mean HCR was done right

[jenmito]

10. Oh-so now they DON'T want this bill to pass? Are you on their side?

[Armstead]

29. No I wanted meaningful reform. I'm just saying the insurance companies love the status quo.

[jenmito]

32. So you, like the insurance companies, want this bill killed. How could you be on their side?

[Armstead]

35. That's faulty logic.

1) I was not initially saying whether I thought the bill should be killed or not. I am of mixed feelings about it. Maybe something is better than nothing. I don't know. It has some good and necessary things. But overall it is so bad and will impose a hardship on many people (mandates) and has little advantages for the majority of policyholders that I believe it will be a setback ultimately.

In any case...

2)Just because the insurance companies may not like gthe bill and I don'y like gthe bill does not automatically mean we are on the "same side." That's faulty logic to assume that two parties who don't like something for the opposite reason s automatically are on the same side.

[daa]

39. TY nt

[n2doc]

9. So...why were they up before on news that the HCR bill was going to pass?

Riddle me that one, batman.

[jenmito]

13. I may not be batman...

but I'd say they did NOT think it was going to end up passing. You know-since it's so "unpopular" and all...

[dflprincess]

23. Health care stocks have been up ever since the Senate passed their insurance bill (n/t)

[subterranean]

37. They went up when the public option/Medicare buy-in was ditched.

[firedupdem]

11. Thought they were up due to the horrible health care reform? Now

they are up because Brown may win? Wish they would make up their minds.

[suston96]

12. What does this mean?

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/01/19/open-thread-on-ma-election-big-turnout-seen-despite-weather/> Interesting.

High turnout expected.

posted at 12:55 pm on January 19, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
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Now that our server issues seem to have been resolved, let’s open up a thread for updates on the Massachusetts special election race. At the moment, the Bay State is seeing a big turnout for a non-presidential election, let alone a special election in the middle of winter:

Voter turnout is heavy for the special election today to fill the state’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. …

In contrast to the light turnout for the party primaries last month, there are already signs of a heavy turnout.

******

[jenmito]

15. According to the media, it means people are coming out strongly for Brown...

claiming areas of MA that favor him have higher turnout than those areas that favor Coakley.

[timeforpeace]

14. They must think he will vote for the Senate bill.

[jenmito]

17. Bull. They know he will vote against the Senate bill. That's the whole reason this is such a big

deal.

[still_one]

16. So what happens when Coakley wins? Will the market go down? /nt

[jenmito]

19. Health insurance stocks will probably go down. n/t

[still_one]

25. What if they don't, what does that mean? My point is most analysts we hear on

on these programs are usually wrong, as was proven during the crash

[skipos]

18. Ask DUers why most health insurance stocks have been flat or only @10% above the DJIA

for the last 5 years. I doubt you'll get an answer.

And this comes from someone who is not a fan of the current HCR.

[jenmito]

22. I bet none of them will answer that.

[uponit7771]

20. But but but...Obama....CORPORATIST PONY!!!!

[napi21]

21. Sounds to me like all the DUers who said HC Co's were benefiting

so much by these bills were WRONG!

[dflprincess]

28. Not necessarily

Health insurance stocks have been going up since the Senate passed their insurance bill.

If Coakley loses (God forbid) it means that the only insurance bill that might pass is the Senate's version if the House agrees to accept it as is. That way it doesn't have to be debated again in the Senate.

It's a win-win for the insurance companies. They either get the bill which hands them 30 million more victims to soak with overpriced, high out of pocket plans, with no competition from a public option and very little regulation - or things stay the same. Either way they keep raking in the money while we continue to go without real access to health care.

[uponit7771]

31. Heads haters bash Obama \ Tails haters bash Obama.....yeap......we see it

[dflprincess]

36. No - it's heads the insurance companies win, tails the insurnace companies win

and we all lose. If you want to call that bashing Obama go ahead.

Sooner or later the cheerleaders will figure out that calling the Health Insurance Profit Protection Act "reform" doesn't make it so. Any more than Bush's "Clean Skies Inititive" had anything to do with improving air quality standards. Though it probably won't happen until they figure out that even though they're paying for "coveage" they still can't afford to get care.

[uponit7771]

30. Yeap

[AndyA]

24. Wasn't it also reported that health insurer stocks have been going up because of HCR?

It can't be both ways.

I think the M$M mouthpieces are just saying what they've been told to say by their corporate masters. Don't try to hold them accountable, they don't care if they're on the record as saying one thing in November and something else in January.

I like the premise that if Brown wins and HCR fails, the insurance companies will just keep on raising premiums, cutting services, and by November people will be REALLY PISSED OFF at Republicans because they've lost their health care, or can no longer afford it.

It won't be pretty at the polls come November if that happens, and you know premiums are going to be going up without HCR...

[jefferson_dem]

26. Sick!

http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS316US316&q=insurance%20stocks&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wn

[nightrain]

27. and given all the dough Coakley has gotten from them, if the polls

favored her, the stocks would probably be up too. Same tune, different labels.

[inthebrain]

33. Maybe because your making a false correlation/causation

The Health Care Reform Bill is not an attack on the insurance companies. It's a hand out and it MANDATES that everyone purchase it.

Fact of the matter is that until the Working Class sees itself as a class of itself and for itself you are gonna be stuck with these faux reforms.

[subterranean]

34. The insurance companies would prefer no reform at all.

But if reform is going to happen, they want the Senate bill (mandates and no public option).


Goldman To Private Insurers: No Health Care Reform At All Is Best

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/12/goldman-to-private-insure_n_355998.html

[high density]

38. Everything is up today

You can't raise an index like the S&P 500 or Wilshire 5000 by 1.25% based on a handful of stocks.

[TheKentuckian]

40. I'd guess they feel the Senate bill will be forced through or nothing will

meaning they win either way.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

41. The meme that will not die....

Healthcare stocks are not up significantly higher than the broader market over the past year. And the market is generally up today and (surprise) healthcare stocks are also up.

Both sides of this discussion need to stop trying to peg the reaction of the market to one specific event (or future event).

[jenmito]

42. Did you see this link from jefferson_dem?:

http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS316US316&q=insurance%20stocks&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wn

[Irish_shark]

43. Nobody has suggested that insurers prefer the Senate bill over the status quo

The reason why stocks went up when the Senate bill was approved was that the public option died.

Now that the public option is totally dead, their choice is Senate Bill vs. Status Quo.

The public option is what would hurt stocks the most. But with only the two other choices left, a Brown win means the status quo (which is even worse for us and better for them than the Senate bill) might prevail. As a result, stocks go up.